The bio

Well it was definitely time for me to go on another adventure. Thought I would check out a different continent, one not so far away :)

Guatemala started as a means for me to complete some field work as part of my Master's of Public Health degree. Luckily for me, concentrating in International Health takes me to places like Quetzaltenango (aka Xela) to complete sed field work.

I will be working on nutrition research for a few months. The organization that I've linked up with is called CeSSIAM [http://www.inffoundation.org/research/cessiam.htm]. There are four main projects they are working on:

1.) Giardia...to see if a new rapid-test kit is as accurate/valid as the current test that takes a while to produce results
2.) Breastfeeding...to see if stress hormones present in breast milk contribute to stunting in children; and how gangliosides can help reduce those hormones/inflammatory response they cause.
3.) Anemia...to test a new machine that is non-invasive that looks at hemoglobin levels to determine if children have insufficient iron
4.) Obesity...to better understand why children that attend private schools in Xela are more likely to be obese than children that attend public schools

I, ironically, got assigned to the Giardia project. I was hoping to not revisit those memories of my time in Uganda, but so it goes. I will be working mostly with health centers to collect stool samples from children that come in with diarrhea. We then will have it tested at a lab, and if it turns out positive for Giardia, then we will conduct both the new (rapid) and the old (current gold-standard) tests to see if they have the same results.

Since I am planning on staying for a while, I hopefully will be able to work on multiple projects. So far, the tropical storms and volcano eruption have delayed a lot of the Giardia study. The project is just getting started and a lot of work is to be done. Stay tuned!

Vacation across the Nation

We have been able to take a few vacations since we have been here. We took two mini ones to lakes nearby and a week-long vacation that took us all over the east and central regions of Uganda.

Our first sightseeing adventure took us to Lake Mburo. It's about an hour away from Mbarara and is known for being one of the only places in Uganda that has zebras. It also has a lot of hippos, antelopes, warthogs and things of that nature. No elephants or giraffes, though. The same friend that took us from Kampala to Mbarara took us to the lake and also took on the role of safari guide. Haha, and by safari guide, I mean a man who zoomed down the roads, blared music, and didn’t know where to go or anything about the animals. But it was a really good time and a proper guide wasn’t really necessary. We decided to go on a water safari to see the hippos, and the friend that was driving was not a big fan. He has seen one too many people with missing limbs from hippo attacks and was not thrilled to be only 15 feet away from the beast. And he might not have been able to swim, I can't remember. But we survived, all limbs intact, and got to see lots of hippos.

We took another weekend adventure a week or so later to Lake Bunyonyi, which was 3.5 hours west of where we stay. And well worth the drive! Is was GORGEOUS. It is like the Venice of Uganda. There are 11 small islands within the lake and massive, lush hills all around. We got to see a little nub of Rwanda poking up into the sky.

This is a picture of Punishment Island...dadadum...it was were unmarried pregnant women were sent. All that is there is that one small tree in the center. Many of the women died of either starvation or trying to swim to the other islands. This was also the hot spot for bride shopping. If a man was feeling lonely, or needed a wife to cook for him, he would just go to Punishment Island and claim one. Insta-wife.

And here is how most of the landscape on and around the islands looked:

We went to Bunyonyi saying it would be a beautiful backdrop to a long weekend of typing transcriptions. Beautiful it was, but typing wasn't what we ended up doing. There was an outland group staying at the same lodge that was full of Australians. Ridiculous Australians. So we spent the whole night hanging out with them and the whole rest of the next morning with a bit of a headache. It was fun and we got a few good stories out of it too. And fate would have it that we would cross paths with the same outlanders a week later rafting the Nile.

And now the good stuff-our week long vacay! It was pretty stressful trying to plan it with the other girls in Gulu and trying to please everyone. Location, activities, timing, etc. is hard to plan through text messaging. We were planning it right up until the day we left. But I'm really happy with the way things worked out. Because we were traveling all of the country, we rented a van + driver to tote us around.

Kara dubbed it the grasshopper

1) because of its color 2) because we bought fried grasshoppers for the first time while we were in the van and 3) because an hour after we had those fried grasshoppers, Kara pucked them up all along side the van. So the name is very fitting and stuck.

On the right is a picture of Kara and a grasshopper...if she only knew...

The very first day we left, the driver-Kakuure-I guess didn't get much sleep and had to keep pulling over to stretch every hour. Me, loving to drive and really wanting to do it on the opposite side of the road, volunteered to relieve him of what we were paying him to do...drive. Besides hitting every pothole possible (and I remind you, this is Uganda. Street maintenance is not a priority) the ride went pretty smoothly.

We spent the night in the capital city and headed out bright and early the next day to Jinja. Some fun trivia: Jinja is the source of the Nile...who would of thought it was in Uganda?! So not only did I get to go to the source, I also got to raft one of the top rivers in the world!! And what a good time! It was just three of us girls in the boat with an Aussi guide and an oar rig. Lily and I flew out on one of the first big rapids. I had never been recirculated in a hole before and got to experience that. My shoulder got dislocated through it all and was stuck out of place for what seemed like a good minute or two. But since that has been happening for the past three years now, it was more unpleasant and annoying that I couldn't really paddle for the rest of the trip than anything else.

So if the thrill of that wasn't enough, seeing where we were staying that night put me over the top. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I giant tent, on a cliff, overlooking the Nile. Gorgeous.

Our next stop in Jinja was horseback riding along the river bank. And this was no head-to-tail trail riding. We rode retired Kenyan racehorse that hadn't lost their passion for speed! My horse was Ghost, and I think I fell in love that day. I have never gone so fast on a horse, and I absolutely loved it. One of the best parts was chatting with our guide. She is a Kiwi that has been in Africa for 15 plus years. She started as a safari guide, then became the first woman to raft the entire Nile (she's got her own National Geographic documentary!), and now buys Kenyan racehorses while she lives on the bank of the Nile. I got a few names from her of people that might be looking to hire a crazy American girl when she gets done with school. I slightly envied her life, I'm not gonna lie. She was pretty great.

There was a bit of a tragedy, though, during this horse ride. Kara's stirrup leather broke, mid-canter, and she ended up toppling off her horse and into a ditch. Being her extreme self, she just needed a minute to crawl out of the ditch and she hopped right back on the horse to finish the ride. Her hand and shoulder got pretty beat up, and we decided a visit to the hospital for a xray wouldn't hurt. Turns out she chipped two of her hand bones and she would be left with a blow glove as a hand for the next few weeks.

After Jinja, we headed to Sipi Falls in the Eastern side of Uganda. We stayed here for three days, and again, I was blown away by the beauty of nature. We were the only people at this place and got to enjoy the view of the waterfall right outside our window all to ourselves. Kara and I hiked up to a 100ft waterfall and played in its pools the first day we got there. Here is the top of it:And here is the bottom:

Again, gorgeous.

The next day Lily,Lindsay, and I went to check out another waterfall that was maybe an hours hike away. This one was an even bigger and better adventure. We had no idea where we were going and hiked through banana plantations, along boulders of the river bed, up hills of cabbage patches, and finally made it.

Sipi was by far my favorite place we visited. Truely perfect and picturesque.

Next on our list was Ssese Island. This is one of the many islands in Lake Victoria, and I had pictured in my head a tropical paradise. Julia had visited this place last summer and loved it. There were beaches, dogs, BBQ, bonfires, etc. But when we got there the place we stayed was under construction and the accomidations weren't like the rest of our trip. The dog had some fungus growing all over them, and the beaches were full of snails that carried the schisto parasite. But this is where we all meet up again and so it was nice that we all got to enjoy each other one final time.

We saw Julia (the supervisor for the first month) off and headed back to Mbarara with Tesfa (the new supervisor).

All in all, it was a great, great vacation and I enjoyed the week off. Uganda is quite a beautiful place! Hopefully next weekend-our last weekend in Mbarara (!) we will travel to Fort Portal in the Western part.

Time is running out for my summer and I plan on making the most of what is left!

Sorry! And here's an update

It has been brought to my attention that I am terrible at keeping up with the blog. In my defense, the days have been pretty packed and making it to the internet is sometimes more of a hassle than anything else. But, today marks a new day! And from here on out, I will try to be better at it.

And, because I have a tendency to write a novel when I want to describe anything, I will try to spare some of the details. I also really think adding pictures is a nice touch, too. I have decide to make a "Things on Two Wheels" tribute to acknowledge all of the creative things that can be carried on a bicycle, motorcycle, etc. I will start off with one of my favorite pictures...

It's the Milk Mobile!! The milk men are always the sweetest looking, just home grown men of Uganda. Just flag one down for a cup of freshly squeezed milk. Very cute.

So, back to catching you up to speed...boy, there's a lot...

We finished collecting data for one research project, had a vacation (or three really :)), and already began working on the next phase of data collection. We had a change of supervisors and along with that a completely different mode of operation.

Our first project flew by. The first week we spent coming up with a survey and getting all of our ducks in a row, and the following three weeks were spent at various health centers in villages asking mothers our survey. We wanted to know about their health seeking behaviors; what illnesses they go to traditional healer for; to modern health practitioners for; what they treat themselves. And from those questions spawned a waterfall of information. But there were quite a bit of challenges. A lot of people weren't honest, many things were being mis-translated, and people had misinterpreted our intentions and formed their answers to what they thought we wanted to hear. But looking past all the 'fake' interviews, I had a few really good ones to that made every bit worth it. We got to revisit the best interviewees and this was my fav:




She is an herbalist that has herbs that can cure measles, anemia, malaria, diarrhea, ekibare (pancreatitis/enlarged spleen, we're not sure on the correct organ), malnutrition, and can help women have a speedy delivery. She is also a traditional birth attendant (an unofficial midwife), and just a cool lady.


And here is Kara, hard at work visiting one of her key interviewees. However, the lady in the picture isn't the key informant. It is a crazy lady that just walked in while we were there! The one we were interviewing was really sweet to the wanderer and allowed her to stay for a bit.




















And I think a perfect ending to this overdue message is...an envelope on a bike. Symbolic of the care it takes to deliver (and in my case, post) a letter (or blog).

Hope all is well!

Happy Independence Day, America!

I have to admit, I'm kind of jealous of everyone in America today. Probably 95% of folks back home spent last night gazing up at the sky, either on a blanket or comfy lawn chair, admiring bursts of lights with intermittent sounds of booms, whistles, and cheers. Sipping a cold one, eating a hot dog, and wearing an American flag bandanna would have been a pretty great night. But, the three of us here didn't forget about our homeland's independence and we tried to have a mini-celebration too. We baked the most American dessert we could think of-apple pie. And because we didn't have a grill to cook it ourselves, we decided to go out for a little BBQ goat. It was a nice celebration but also a reminder of how I miss home.

I hope everyone had a very Happy Fourth of July...and if there are any fireworks left over, shoot one off for me :)

The Chronicles of Giardia

So my gut has not taken so well to the Ugandan food/water/environment. Something about it is rather upsetting to my system. However, there is a bit of humor in it all thanks to the brand of toilet paper sold in the market. It is none other than JOY...! Coincidence? Perhaps. But I found it very ominous the moment I read the label. All the symptoms I am having fit with a mild case of giardia. Butt (yes, pun and typo intended...ha!), it comes and goes and is not as severe as the horror stories I have heard from survivors of that vicious parasite. So realistically, it's not giardia but gah, is it unpleasant. I feel, though, that I am on the road to recovery and my pseudo-giardia is passing through.

Well, I don't want to completely gross you out. So sorry for the unpleasantries. I will shift gears now and show how great some of the food is. Check out this fabulous meal Kara made us one night:


Pan-fried tilapia with caramelized onions and garlic, mashed potatoes, toast, and coleslaw with cucumbers, carrots, and bell peppers. Mmm mm!

And one day we stumbled across the most fabulous avocados. They were HUGE! Perfectly ripe, sweeter than normal, and $0.40 a piece! An unbelievable bargain.


Something that I have discovered since being here is that I love curry. I used to think it was just 'ok' but now it is my stable spice. There is a big Indian population in Mbarara and along with that, tons of curry options. Vegetable curry, goat curry, you name it, put the spice on it, and I want it. Curry seems to liven things up a bit. Our staple foods have been eggs, bread, and...yep, that's about it. I have eggs and bread almost everyday (sometimes they are found at every meal) and feel spoiled if my taste buds get much variety apart from these. I have only had one frustrating day where I just wanted delicious food and felt trapped in a country that didn't have any. I took the frustration to the extreme, found some curry, and got over it :) But, I don't want to be misleading. There are a lot of really tasty restaurants and we have made some good dinners here at home.

I think this will be a good end to what started as a bad chronicle, so I will leave with the 'cado, curry, and commodities.

Cheers!

Two Weeks Into It

Good news! I made it!! And things in Uganda are going really well. The team and I have been able to get a lot of work done while having a little fun while we are at it.

I flew into the city of Entebbe after two successful 8hr flights. The first flight I think ranks as the most uncomfortable flight I have ever been on, but the second one made up for it. I was finally able to sleep and I sat next to a really friendly Ugandan from Atlanta. He had been living in ATL for 15 or so years and was taking his family back to see his parents and friends still in Uganda. He was a great introduction to the country and gave me some ideas on places to go for a mini-vacation on a weekend we don’t have much going on. And immigration was a breeze. I had a bit of a scare because I didn’t bring my immunization card with me, an item that didn’t even cross my mind to bring. Unbeknownst to me, some countries require proof of the yellow fever vaccine before they let you in…luckily, Uganda didn’t care so much. However, it does make it inconvenient for me to try to go to Tanzania. The group and I were flirting with the idea of spending our week off in Tanzania-a country that so happens to require this infamous immunization card. But you live and you learn. Maybe we will take the gamble and see if I can get away with not having it at the border. We’ll see.

We had a taxi take us the 45min to the capital city, Kampala. I was in pure awe. The city was really, really nice, especially on the main drag where we stayed. Our hotel was pretty neat and equipped with a hot water shower (score!). It was right downtown and we were able to walk around most places. However, with it being downtown it was really noisy. One side of the hotel, our side, neighbored the street and the other side was the ally side and dubbed Hooker Highway. So strange noises were coming from all directions…Now, I have never been to New York City to give a fair comparison, but I imagine the horn honking is ten times worse in Kampala than in the Big Apple. Driving here seems quite the challenge but the locals seem to have a good system figured out: do what you want and just honk so everyone moves out of the way. And if I were ever to give up on America and move to Uganda, I would definitely become a boda-boda driver. Wouldn’t a dirt-bike/motorcycle taxi driver be the sweetest gig? There is no set rate and the rules of the road don’t apply. You can drive on the wrong side of the street, on the sidewalks, over the median, not sit in traffic, work when you feel like it, break when you please, and meet tons of people a day…where’s the downside?

We stayed in Kampala for five days. While we were there we visited the mall, coffee shops, and tons of restaurants with any ethnicity available: Lebanese, Indian, Thai, African, American, and more! One night the other American girls and I were feeling a little adventurous and went to a local club that was nearby…and boy was that a good time! Pretty standard Saturday night minus the bumpin’ and grindin’ dancing folks do back home. PDA is something not commonly done here, which I appreciate. There were some familiar songs being played, some 50 Cent, Soldja Boy, etc. There was a mix of local songs and also good American oldies that people seemed to get into, too. The only bad thing that has happened all trip occurred during this outing. My camera, well my parent’s camera, got lost/stolen here. I decided not to bring my purse and let my friend hang on to it for me and it wasn’t in her purse when we got home. I was able to buy another one the next day, but it doesn’t compare to my other one…and I am a few hundred bucks short now…and I lost all my pics…and I don’t have a memory card that fits. I have to keep the pictures on the lowest setting and just use the camera’s memory. Not ideal, but doable.

After getting some essential tasks done in Kampala, we left for our final destination to Mbarara. The other team left a day before we did and had some transportation problems. They hired a tour company to drive them the 5hrs to Gulu and their vehicle’s transmission died :\ We, however, had a friend drive us our 6.5hr trip and didn’t have any difficulties. His name was Andy and he was passing through Kampala, heading to Mbarara, and offered us spots in his backseat. And the ride there was absolutely hilarious! Andy enlightened us on many things Ugandan, told us a lot of stories about his family and work, and made the ride seem a lot shorter. The ride was about 1.5 hours longer than usually because there is construction for a good 40km on the only road to Mbarara. But we made it, had a good time, and ended up at a really nice guest house at Mbarara University.

The research is going well and we are about to venture into the field this weekend. For the past week we have been coming up with a questionnaire and figuring out the logistics of everything. I have really been able to learn a lot about designing a study and various things that I never would have considered. Changing one word in a question can change the entire meaning so everything has to be thought about with such detail. I have been able to offer up a few suggestions, but I mainly take the backseat and just watch the pros work it out. So it’s nice to be this involved while also just being able to watch and learn.

I have to admit, it does get a little lonely at times. But the girls I am with are pretty great, and I love that I have them here with me. I feel like we already have several inside jokes and it is great to have other people to share Ugandan peculiars with. However, I do miss the people back home. So things are great, and I am loving my time here.

Many things have happened while we have been in Mbarara; I suppose it has been a little of a week now. I will give an update on the fun things, along with our first field days, the next time I can blog.

Love, Peace, and Pork Muchomo

JOY

A little background

Well, there are less than 5 days left before my adventure begins! Whoa. I can't seem to grasp that I am really going back. Although my prior experience in Tanzania was incredibly challenging and left me questioning my fondness of Africa, I have had two years to appreciate the amount of personal growth that accompanied the struggles. I can better prepare myself for the stares, language barriers, isolation, starch, trash, noise, loneliness, etc. But what makes the trip even more exciting are the pleasantries I cannot yet predict: the friendships, the animals, the culture, nature, knowledge, humbleness, etc. that I have missed the past two years. I also look forward to actually working with -researching- the population I hope to work with in future.

I thought it would be a good idea to give a description of what I am getting myself into and describe for those that don't already know a little about my summer internship.

I will be heading to Mbarara, Uganda for 2.5 months (May 21 - Aug 3) to work on research funded by the National Institute of Health. One of the biggest perks, aside from the experience of course, is that the majority of the trip is paid for by the NIH: my plane ticket, malaria pills, lodging, etc. I also get a hefty stipend for my 'work'. On top of that, I get a room-and-board check to cover food, water, and in-country transportation that should last me the entire summer. Pretty sweet deal! The city is located in the southern part of Uganda (see red dot). I hear it is more rural than the capital, Kampala, and Gulu-one of the more famous cities in Uganda and also home to another group of researchers doing the internship. Mbarara has things like hotels, restaurants, and 'laundry mats'-quite an upgrade from village life in Tengeru, Tanzania.
I will be doing qualitative research looking at community members' opinions of traditional healers (dare I say witch doctors?) and modern practitioners and also seeing what the different kinds of doctors think about each other. So we will be conducting interviews and focus groups with the healers, doctors, and community members. Translators will be used during the interviews, which I think will add an interesting element to the whole process. I will be part of a team of four: two supervisors that are going at separate times, an anthropology graduate student, and myself. I have meet the other people twice that are going to my site and feel like we will get along and be able to work well together. There are two other students and supervisors going to Gulu. Their project involves work with art therapy on former child soldiers. They will primarily be working in refugee camps and neighboring areas. I might get lucky enough to finish my project in Mbarara and work at the Gulu site towards the end of the summer.

A lot of the other details will be worked out in country. I will be getting a cell phone and a Ugandan phone number while I am over there. My mother will gladly give anyone the number that wants it I'm sure. And thanks to my wonderful aunt, I have several calling cards that can be used to call me. The more familiar voices I get to hear, the easier my time away from everyone will be. I will post some calling card numbers up here...please, don't hesitate :)

With only five days left there is still a lot that has to be done. I still don't have a place in Boston to live when I get back (I have gotten a few craigslist hits, though!), I must pay a recent and unjust (at least in my opinion) speeding ticket :/, sign up for classes next semester, hopefully contact my advisor to let them know what's up, write thank yous, man the list just goes on. Mom and I have been out and about shopping for the many things I will be taking with me. A perk this time is that I have a better idea of what to bring-the proper attire, products, and amount. It's hard thinking about what I will need over the span of 2.5 months and trying to balance that out with what a developing country can provide instead. My goal is one bag, granted it is the biggest backpack one can buy, but the less I have the better.

Having these few days between graduation and departure has been great. I love coming home to Memphis where I live with the efficency queen and things get done. I've been able to catch up on some much needed relaxation. The folks took me to the movies a few nights ago and I was proud to be their third wheel. I got a good laugh in watching all the teenagers get dropped off by their parents and make rucus the first breath of freedom they got. Ahh, those were the days...

Well, I suppose that's all for blog number one. I will post some calling card digits sometime before I leave.

Hope life is going well! Thanks for reading :)

-JOY-